System and method for third-party food and dining ordering control

ABSTRACT

A system and method for third-party food and dining ordering control, comprising at least one device capable of accessing the internet which may be a mobile device or personal computing device such as a laptop or desktop, a web application, and a point-of-sale system at a restaurant or retailer, wherein users of the web application may deposit funds into an account and set regulations on what they may purchase with the deposited funds, or have an administrator set up an account for them such as a parent setting up an account for a child or a doctor setting up an account for a patient, allowing the parent or doctor or other administrator to regulate what the sub-user such as the child or patient may purchase, in keeping with budget, diet, and lifestyle restrictions, and which may utilize zero-step authentication to allow for seamless use of the service at certain establishments.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority is claimed in the application data sheet to the followingpatents or patent applications, the entire written description of eachof which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:

-   Ser. No. 17/571,515-   Ser. No. 17/005,038-   Ser. No. 16/796,342-   62/938,817-   62/964,413

BACKGROUND Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of payment systems, and moreparticularly to the field of third-party and self regulated onlinepayment services and integration with restaurants and retailers.

Discussion of the State of the Art

The advent of online payments and the ease of setting up online paymentaccounts, and the ease of transferring funds online between banking andother financial institutions, has benefited society in many ways,allowing for easy transfer of funds between individuals online and easypayment for goods without ever having actual, physical dollar bills orother physical currency involved. It is possible for family members totransfer funds to the accounts of other family members quite easily, andfor parents to support their children with funds such as when they arein university or when they have an allowance on their own debit card orwith an online account. This, however, comes with many risks, of thechild, or other individual including an independent user of onlinefinances and banking, to misuse their funds, and to purchase unhealthy,dangerous, or expensive and unneeded goods, due to a lack of selfcontrol and the ease with which one can transfer funds and makepurchases with online banking and even online shopping.

There exists no easy way for parents to control what their child canspend money on or to help guide them to healthier lifestyles, andlikewise it is common for people who attempt to self-regulate theirdiets and lifestyles in accordance with personal goals, doctorrecommendations, or dietician and nutritionist recommendations, to fallshort of their goals and purchase unhealthy or unneeded goods. No systemof keeping track of dietary or budgeting or lifestyle constraintscurrently integrates with point-of-sale systems in a similar way thatonline financing and banking already does, either, resulting in anextremely easy method to acquire goods detrimental to one's health orlifestyle or budget, but no easy way to control such purchases if onelacks the (sometimes immense) self control to prevent such purchases inthe first place. This is made even harder for individuals with actualdisabilities or deficiencies which make responsible purchasing moredifficult, such as those suffering from depression or complex dietaryrestrictions which they struggle to meet.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, asystem and method for third-party food and dining ordering control,comprising at least one device capable of accessing the internet whichmay be a mobile device or personal computing device such as a laptop ordesktop, a web application, and a point-of-sale system at a restaurantor retailer, wherein users of the web application may deposit funds intoan account and set regulations on what they may purchase with thedeposited funds, or have an administrator set up an account for themsuch as a parent setting up an account for a child or a doctor settingup an account for a patient, allowing the parent or doctor or otheradministrator to regulate what the sub-user such as the child or patientmay purchase, in keeping with budget, diet, and lifestyle restrictions,and which may utilize zero-step authentication to allow for seamless useof the service at certain establishments.

According to a preferred embodiment, a system for third-party food anddining ordering control is disclosed, comprising: at least one computercapable of communicating over the Internet; at least one point of salesystem; a datastore; a web application comprising a first memory, afirst processor, and a first plurality of programming instructionsstored in the first memory, and operating on the first processor,wherein the first plurality of programming instructions, when operatingon the processor, cause the web application to: facilitate two-waycommunications with the at least one computer capable of communicatingover the Internet and the application; facilitate two-way communicationswith the at least one point of sale system and the application; allowusers of the at least one computer capable of communicating over theInternet to provide account registration data with the application;wherein the data received from users may be encrypted; store theregistration data in the datastore; allow registered users to depositfunds into their account data; allow users to specify other subordinateusers to their account; wherein the registered user and the specifiedsubordinate users may use the stored funds to make purchases of food atrestaurants and retailers; wherein the restaurants and retailers atwhich purchases may be made, and the types of p purchases that may bemade, are specified by the registered user; allow for the registereduser to specify any third parties to notify of attempted purchases usingstored funds; and notify specified third parties, if any, of anyattempted purchases using stored funds.

According to another preferred embodiment, a method for third-party foodand dining ordering control is disclosed, comprising the steps of:facilitating two-way communications with the at least one computercapable of communicating over the Internet and the application, using aweb application and at least one computer capable of communicating overthe Internet; facilitating two-way communications with the at least onepoint of sale system and the application, using a web application and atleast one point of sale system; allowing users of the at least onecomputer capable of communicating over the Internet to provide accountregistration data with the application, using a web application and atleast one computer capable of communicating over the Internet; whereinthe data received from users may be encrypted; storing the registrationdata in the datastore, using a web application and datastore; allowingregistered users to deposit funds into their account data, using a webapplication and datastore; allowing users to specify other subordinateusers to their account, using a web application and at least onecomputer capable of communicating over the Internet; wherein theregistered user and the specified subordinate users may use the storedfunds to make purchases of food at restaurants and retailers; whereinthe restaurants and retailers at which purchases may be made, and thetypes of p purchases that may be made, are specified by the registereduser; allowing for the registered user to specify any third parties tonotify of attempted purchases using stored funds, using a webapplication and at least one computer capable of communicating over theInternet; and notifying third parties of any attempted purchases usingstored funds, using a web application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a zero-step authentication system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of zero-step authentication system, the payment facilitationserver.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary flow of payments inan embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary business/customerinteraction and showing an exemplary screenshot.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary bill splitting feature andshowing an exemplary screenshot.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forregistration of a customer's mobile device and order placement.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forzero-step authentication and completion of a transaction.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forestablishment of an account and pre-authorization of payments.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forbill splitting among customers.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forfunds transfer among customers.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 14 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 15 is a system diagram of a system for third-party food and diningand retail purchase ordering control, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a system diagram of a web application used for third-partyfood and dining and retail purchase ordering control, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 17 is a method diagram illustrating the function of a system forthird-party food and dining and retail purchase ordering control,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of a system forthird-party food and dining and retail purchase ordering control,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a system forthird-party food, dining, and retail purchase ordering control, beingused for a parent to monitor and control what a child or other dependentmay order with deposited funds.

FIG. 20 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a system forthird-party food, dining, and retail purchase ordering control, beingused for a patient to monitor and control what they eat withself-reporting or reporting to a doctor or other third-party,potentially with a doctor dictating the dietary restrictions on thepatient account.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a zero-stepauthentication system and method which uses wireless mobile devices toautomatically make payments in a secure manner without requiring thecustomer to handle his or her mobile device. The system and method usesa payment facilitation device at the business location whichautomatically detects and recognizes registered mobile devices, displaysa photo of the customer to a business employee for identityconfirmation, and automatically deducts payments for purchases from apre-authorized customer account. The customer account is managed by apayment processing server, which stores the customer account data, makesappropriate deductions, sends confirmation of deductions to thecustomer's mobile device, and automatically refills the customer'saccount by making pre-authorized charges to the customer's bankinginstitution.

Because the customer does not have to focus on his or her mobile device,the customer is free to interact naturally with the business environmentand with employees of the business. For example, the customer is free tolook around to experience the store's ambiance, which will tend tocreate a positive impression on the customer, and increase thelikelihood that the customer will wish to return. Further, the customeris free to look at and speak with the business' employees, whichfacilitates personal interactions and relationships, making the customerfeel more welcome and also increasing the likelihood that the customerwill wish to return. These natural interactions are hindered by thehandling and use of mobile phones, where the customer's attention isdrawn away from the business environment and its employees in order tofocus on the details of making or approving the transaction using his orher mobile device.

While the examples herein primarily discuss authorization of payments,the invention is not limited to authorization of monetary transactions,and can be used for authorization and transfer of any asset, orrepresentation of an asset, that can be transferred electronically, forexample: electronic transfers of real currency (credit card charges,bank transfers and payments, etc.), transfers of blockchain-basedcurrencies such as Bitcoin, and transfers of digitized contracts orpromises to pay or transfer physical assets (including, but not limitedto, IOUs, certificates of ownership of stocks or other securities, anddeeds for real estate).

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

“Business establishment” or “place of business” as used herein mean thelocation of any business entity with which customers may transactbusiness. Typically, this will be a physical location where customersmay enter the location and transact business directly with employees ofthe business, but may also be a business without a physical locationsuch as an online or telephone order retailer. Many examples herein usea restaurant as the business establishment, but the invention is notlimited to use in restaurants, and is applicable to any businessestablishment.

The term “network” as used herein means any communication connectionbetween two or more computing devices, whether such connection is madedirectly (e.g., from one device containing a Bluetooth radio to anotherdevice containing a Bluetooth radio) or through an intermediary devicesuch as a router, where a number of devices connected to the router mayall communicate with one another.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture100 for a zero-step authentication system. The primary components of thesystem are a payment facilitation device 103, a unified communicationsdevice or telephony exchange system (UC system) 101, and a paymentfacilitation server 200. Components or services that may connect to orbe accessed by the system include wireless customer mobile devices 102,and payment processors 109. The payment facilitation device 103 is acomputing device located at a business establishment that is connected(wired or wirelessly) to a UC system 101. The payment facilitationdevice 103 may be wired, or wireless, or both, depending on theimplementation of a given embodiment. While a payment facilitationdevice 103 and UC system 101 are specified in this embodiment, it is notrequired that they be precisely in this configuration, and otherconfigurations are possible, including a non-SIP computing deviceconnected to a network without a UC system 101. The payment facilitationdevice 103 comprises a screen (not shown) and applications for acustomer information entry portal 104 and a customer identificationconfirmation application 105. The payment facilitation device 103 may bea mobile computing device like a mobile phone or tablet computer or maybe a desktop or tabletop computing device.

The customer information entry portal 104 is an application on thepayment facilitation device 103 that allows an employee of the businessto enter customer details such as name, telephone number, deviceidentifier, bank, debit, or credit card details, payment preferences,and, if necessary, customer account refill limits and customer accountrefill amounts. The device identifier may be any information that allowsthe system to identify the customer mobile device 102, including, butnot limited to, a mobile access control (MAC) address (e.g., a MACaddress for the device's WiFi radio, a MAC address for the device'sBluetooth radio, etc.), the device's 102 serial number, the device'smobile equipment identifier (MEID) or international mobile equipmentidentity (IMEI) number, the integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID)of the subscriber identity module (SIM) card inserted into the customermobile device 102, and the device's 102 secure element identification(SEID) number.

The customer identification and confirmation application 105 is anapplication that provides security in financial transactions by allowingthe employee of the business to visually confirm the identity of thecustomer making a transaction. For example, the payment facilitationdevice at a particular business location may be connected to multiplecustomer devices simultaneously. The customer identification andconfirmation application 105 may display a photo of the user (customer)of each such connected customer device, and the employee may select thedevice of the customer making the transaction by clicking on thecustomer's photo as displayed by the customer identification andconfirmation application 105 on the payment facilitation device 103.

The UC system 101 is a device or service (e.g., online service) thatintegrates different methods of communication (e.g., phone calls, videocalls, short message service (SMS), instant messaging (chat), email) andallows for all of those different methods of communication to beaccessed through a computing device such as a mobile phone or tabletcomputer. A UC system 101 is the modern, and much more flexible andpowerful, form of a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone equipmentsystem that allowed businesses to connect multiple internal telephonesto a single incoming telephone line. In this example, the UC system 101acts as the interface between the payment facilitation device 103, thecustomer mobile devices 102, and the payment facilitation server 200.

A customer mobile device 102 may be connected to the system via anywireless network connection, for example through the Internet 106, amobile (cellular) network 107, or through a local wireless network 108such as WiFI, Bluetooth, etc. In the case of remote connections such asthose made through the Internet 106 or mobile service 107, the locationof a customer mobile device 102 and its location relative to the paymentfacilitation device 103 or other customer mobile devices 102 may beestablished through use of the device's satellite positioning systemhardware (e.g., GPS, GLONASS, Galileo), by identifying the location ofan intermediary device to which the device is connected (e.g., a WiFirouter, etc. In the case of local connections, which typically use shortrange wireless transmissions, it may not be necessary to determine thelocation of the mobile customer device 102 because the short range ofwireless communications establishes that the payment facilitation device103 or other mobile customer devices are nearby. For example, when usinga Bluetooth Class 2 connection to connect to other devices, it will beapparent that the other devices are nearby because Bluetooth Class 2 hasan effective range on the order of 10 meters.

In a typical scenario, the first time a customer enters a businessestablishment with a customer mobile device 102, an employee of thebusiness establishment will enter the customer's information using thecustomer information entry portal 104 and register the customer mobiledevice 102 using the customer mobile device's 102 identification. When acustomer mobile device 102 enters a business establishment, the paymentfacilitation device 103 and customer mobile device 102 willautomatically detect each other and establish a network connection. Thepayment facilitation device 103 will recognize the customer mobiledevice 102 using the customer mobile device's identifier. As thecustomer makes an order, the business's employee will confirm theidentity of the customer using the customer identification confirmationapplication 105. The payment facilitation device connects to the paymentfacilitation server 200, either directly or through the UC system 101,forwards the customer information and order information to the paymentfacilitation server 200. The payment facilitation server 200, checks thecustomer's account and either deducts an appropriate amount from thecustomer's prepaid account or sends the payment details to a paymentprocessor 109 for processing. Once the payment is processed, the paymentfacilitation server 200 sends a confirmation of the payment either tothe payment facilitation device 103, the customer mobile device 102, orboth. In a scenario where the customer is in a remote location from thebusiness establishment (e.g., a phone order or online order), theprocess is much the same except that the first time customer informationentry and mobile device registration occurs remotely, and the employeedoes not visually identify the customer (although other methods ofidentifying the customer may apply, such as personal identificationnumber (PIN) codes, voice print identification, telephone numberidentification, or customer mobile device 102 identifiers).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of zero-step authentication system, the payment facilitationserver 200. The payment facilitation server 200 manages customerinformation and payments from multiple customers. In this example, thepayment facilitation server comprises a customer information database201, a customer identification engine 202, a payment processing manager209, and one or more applications for managing bill splitting, fundtransfers, and account information. Note that, in some embodiments, thebill splitting and fund transfer applications may be applications on thecustomer mobile device 102 instead of on the payment facilitation server200. As the payment facilitation server receives customer informationand device registrations, it stores them in a customer informationdatabase. Such customer information may comprise customer details suchas name, telephone number, device identifier, bank, debit, or creditcard details, payment preferences, and, if necessary, customer accountrefill limits and customer account refill amounts. The device identifiermay be any information that allows the system to identify the customermobile device 102, including, but not limited to, a mobile accesscontrol (MAC) address (e.g., a MAC address for the device's WiFi radio,a MAC address for the device's Bluetooth radio, etc.), the device's 102serial number, the device's mobile equipment identifier (MEID) orinternational mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number, the integratedcircuit card identifier (ICCID) of the subscriber identity module (SIM)card inserted into the customer mobile device 102, and the device's 102secure element identification (SEID) number.

The customer identification engine 202 provides additional security byconfirming the identity of the customer before processing payments. Inthis example, the customer identification engine 202 has three separateidentification methods, a voiceprint identifier 203, a telephone numberidentifier 204, and a device ID identifier 205. The voiceprintidentifier 203 can provide confirmations of customer identities eitherby matching voice samples of specific words and phrases provided by thecustomer during account creation and device registration or, in a moresophisticated version, may match the customer's voice to any spokenwords and phrases using machine learning algorithms. The telephonenumber identifier 204 receives caller identification (caller ID)information from the UC system 101, and verifies that the phone numberfrom which the order is being made matches the phone number in thecustomer account information. The device ID identifier 205 receives adevice identifier from the UC system 101 and matches it to the deviceidentifier in the customer database 201 to confirm that the device isregistered. In some embodiments, other methods of identifying thecustomer may be used, for example, PIN codes. In some embodiments, twoor more of these identifiers may be used together to confirm thecustomer's identity.

As customer information and order information is received, the paymentfacilitation server 200 checks the customer's account using the customeraccount management application 208 and either deducts and appropriateamount from the customer's prepaid account or sends the payment detailsto the payment processing manager 209, which forwards the paymentrequest to a payment processor 109 for processing. Once the payment isprocessed, the payment facilitation server 200 sends a confirmation ofthe payment either to the payment facilitation device 103, the customermobile device 102, or both.

The bill splitting application 206 receives a bill that is to be sharedby two or more customers (e.g., a restaurant dining bill), the deviceidentifier of two or more customer mobile devices 102, and provides aninterface for those customers to allocate items on the bill between thecustomers. Once each of the customers involved approves the allocation,the bill splitting application forwards each customer's portion of thebill to the payment processing manager 209 The fund transfer application207 operates in a similar manner for fund transfers between customers.Customers involved in the fund transfer specify amounts to betransferred to other customers, and once approved by all customersinvolved in the fund transfer, the fund transfer application forwardsthe approved fund transfers to the payment processing manager 209 forexecution.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary flow of payments 300in an embodiment. When a customer 303 authorizes a transaction (whichauthorization may be pre-approved) through his or her customer mobiledevice 102, the payment authorization is sent to the business 302 at thebusiness' payment facilitation device 103. The payment facilitationdevice 103 of the business 302 sends a payment request to the paymentfacilitation server 200. The payment facilitation server 200 checks thecustomer's pre-paid account 304 to determine whether pre-paid funds areavailable. If such funds are available, a deduction is made from thecustomer pre-paid account 304 in the amount of the authorized payment,and a confirmation is confirmed by the payment facilitation server 200.If sufficient funds are not available in the customer pre-paid account,the account is either refilled or a direct payment request is made. Ineither case, the payment facilitation server 200 sends a payment requestto a payment processor 109, which are financial intermediaries like Visaand Mastercard, who process transactions on behalf of financialinstitutions 301 (i.e., banks). The payment processor 109 sends thepayment request to a financial institution 301 at which the customer 303has an account. The financial institution 301 receives the paymentrequest, and sends a payment to the payment processor 109, typicallyalong with a transaction fee. The payment processor 109 receives thepayment and transaction fee, and forwards the payment to the paymentfacilitation server along with a portion of the transaction fee. Thepayment facilitation server 200 forwards the payment to the business302, which forwards a confirmation of payment 303 to the customer,completing the transaction.

FIG. 15 is a system diagram of a system for third-party food and diningand retail purchase ordering control, according to an embodiment. Acomputer or computers 1510 exist, which may be separate and unconnecteddevices such as computers running in different buildings on differentnetworks, such as a home computer, and a computer at a doctor's office.These computers may have at least an operating system and networkadapter, and network connection, as well as associated hardware thatallows such a computer to operate, such as volatile memory, a powersource, and other common components for a computer. A mobile device orcollection of mobile devices 1520 also may exist, including mobilephones, personal digital assistants or similar, and tablets, which maybe able to communicate over a network, and may be owned and operatedseparately, rather than together on the same network or by the sameuser. The computer or computers 1510 and mobile device or devices 1520all may communicate over the Internet 1530, with common protocols suchas Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) and Transmission ControlProtocol (“TCP”), to a web application 1540 using one of their supportedprotocols. A web application may be accessed through a website usingHTTP communications, may be used through TCP communications with aspecific application to operate as an interface between the computer andthe application, and may use any of a variety of possible encryption orsecurity features such as HTTP Secure or RSA encryption to protect userdata. A datastore 1550 may exist either on the same server or servers asweb application 1540, or on a network connection and accessed by webapplication 1540. A point-of-sale or “POS” system for a restaurant,store, or other vendor 1560 is also present, connected over the internet1530 and communicating with a web application 1540. The POS 1560 maycommunicate over the Internet 1530 with web application 1540 with commonprotocols such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) or TransmissionControl Protocol (“TCP”), using one of the supported protocols. Webapplication 1540 may be accessed through a website using HTTPcommunications, may be used through TCP communications with a specificapplication to operate as an interface between the computer and theapplication, and may use any of a variety of possible encryption orsecurity features such as HTTP Secure or RSA encryption to protect userdata.

FIG. 16 is a system diagram of a web application used for third-partyfood and dining and retail purchase ordering control, according to anembodiment. The web application 1540 encompasses or includes severalservices and interfaces for operation, including an authenticationservice 1610, bank interface 1620, sub-user interface 1630, POSinterface 1640, admin interface 1650, notification service 1660,scheduling engine 1670, and suggestion engine 1680. An authenticationservice 1610 may operate by unencrypting received data from anothersource such as a computer or mobile device communicating over HTTP orTCP protocols, or potentially some other protocol, and communicate witha datastore to determine if a received user authentication request isvalid. For instance, user authentication requests may comprise encryptedusername and password combinations that must then be checked againstwhat is stored, or biometric information such as retinal scans, facialscans, voice data, or other biometrics. Authentication data is aone-to-many check in most cases, wherein user data is submitted and thencompared to any entries in the datastore to locate a match, and if noneare found, return a false identification result. If any matches arefound, such as a matching username and password or matching biometricsto what is stored for a stored user, the requesting user and device maybe logged into the application, and be presented with an interface toaccess the application further, such as a sub-user interface 1630 oradministrator interface 1650. A bank interface 1620 is a non-graphicalinterface for financial institutions, which allows depositing of fundssuch as with debit card, bank account number and routing number, PAYPAL™account information, or other financial data, through a secure channeland protocol such as HTTPS protocol. Sub-user interface 1630 andadministrator interface 1650 may both be graphical user interfaces(“GUI”) to display to specific types of users. A parent that is usingthe web application to deposit funds and control what their dependentmay order with the deposited funds, for instance, would register withthe application as an administrator, and then specify their dependent ordependents as sub-users that may log in with specific criteria that iseither set by the parent or set by the dependent. A sub-user mayregister for an independent account as an administrator, but will nothave access to the funds deposited by their caretaker or parent, thusdefeating the purpose of utilizing the application for themselves, asthey would only be able to deposit funds for their own account, ratherthan use the funds deposited by their caretaker for their use inauthorized transactions. A POS interface 1640 is an interface,similarly, for communications from a point-of-sale system at a retaileror restaurant, that may communicate with the web application todetermine if a specified user (authenticated with the authenticationservice) is able to purchase the specified goods for the specifiedprice. If they have not enough funds, or are not permitted to purchasethe specified goods from the specified vendor, they may be rejected, andthe transaction cancelled. Otherwise, the funds may be withdrawn fromthe account, and transferred to the POS system.

Administrator interface 1650 may provide a graphical interface tospecify notifications, scheduling, and suggestions, with theirrespective services in the application 1660, 1670, 1680, wherein thenotifications comprise at least an option to have notifications sent toa third party including the owner of the administrator account for anyattempts at withdrawing funds for purchases from a sub-user, or by theadministrator themselves, such as with email notifications, SMSnotifications, or notifying an account with the web application suchthat upon logging in, they see the specified notification. An example ofsuch a notification may be an email sent to a parent, “2020-05-24 JOHNDOE attempted to purchase ‘MACARONI AND CHEESE’ from vendor ‘WAL-MART OFLOS ANGELES’ for $8.00,” or something similar to a doctor, if an accounthas been set up to notify a doctor of purchases made, in keeping withdietary restrictions placed on the account. Scheduling may be set upwith a scheduling engine 1670 such that specific purchases, and specificvendors or classes of vendors, may only be purchased or purchased from,on a specific schedule, such as only allowing alcohol to be purchasedonce every month, or only allowing foods from restaurants to bepurchased once a week, allowing an administrator to control certainaspects of budgeting and lifestyle choices made with the deposited fundsfor sub-users. The suggestion engine 1680 may be used within the app toprovide suggestions of foods, recipes, local restaurants or grocerystores, that may interest a user or sub-user based on specifiedinterests and preferences, such as preferences for dairy foods, spicyfoods, or specific types of restaurants such as Mexican restaurantswithin 10 miles. Sub-users may set their own suggestions preferences ifpermitted by the administrator, and their actions with the depositedfunds from the administrator are restricted based on the schedulingengine, restriction settings from the administrator, and notificationsmay be sent out upon attempting to use the deposited funds, based on thesettings specified by the administrator, if any, using for instance,email notifications, SMS notifications, or notifications seen on log-inof an account.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Aspects

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary business/customerinteraction 400 and showing an exemplary screenshot. In this example, acustomer 401 (who already has an account and registered device 402 at abusiness establishment) makes an order. The customer's device 402 andthe payment facilitation device 103 detect each other and establish aconnection when the customer 401 enters the business establishment. Thecustomer's photograph 403 is displayed on the business' paymentfacilitation device 103, along with the customer's information 404 andorder details 405. An employee of the business clicks on the customerphotograph 403 to confirm the identity of the customer 401. Onceconfirmed, the customer device 402 automatically approves payment andreceives confirmation of the payment without the customer having thehandle the device 402. The customer device 402 may remain in thecustomer's pocket, purse, backpack, etc., and does not have to beremoved to complete the transaction.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary bill splitting feature 500and showing an exemplary screenshot. In this example, three customers,Bob 501, Sally 503, and Joe 505, each with their respective mobiledevices 502, 504, and 506, have a meal together at a restaurant and wantto split the bill among themselves. Each customer's mobile device has abill splitting application installed on it, which shows a copy of thebill and the customers who dined together. For example, Bob's 501 mobiledevice 502 shows the bill information 507 for the group on the left-handside of his screen, and a window for himself 508, a window for Sally509, and window for Joe 510 on the right side. The mobile devices 504,506 of Sally 503 and Joe 505 show similar screens. The windows 508, 509,510, each show a photo (or other representation) of the customer, aspace for allocating items from the bill, and a total of the itemsallocated to that customer. As each customer, on his or her respectivemobile device 502, 504, 506, allocates food and drink items from thebill information 507 by clicking on them and dragging them to the windowof a person on the right, the allocation of those food and drink itemsappears in the window of the person to whom the item has been allocated,as indicated by the arrows. For example, the risotto Milanese and whitewine have been allocated to Bob (either by Bob or by one of the othertwo customers), a total due from Bob of $26 is shown, and thisinformation is updated on all three mobile devices 502, 504, 506. Onceall three customers 501, 503, 505 approve the allocation, each person'smobile device 502, 504, 506 processes the payment for the amountallocated to that customer. In some embodiments, unallocated items maybe automatically split among the customers in the group.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forregistration of a customer's mobile device and order placement. When acustomer calls a restaurant a first time to place an order 601, thecustomer's telephone number is captured using UC telephony equipment,and additional customer information is gathered and entered intodatabase by an employee of the business 602. The customer then makes hisor her order and the order is completed 603. Each time the customermakes a subsequent call to same business to place an order 604, thecustomer's telephone number is captured using UC telephone equipment,and the customer's information is retrieved from a customer databaseusing a customer identification application 605. The customer than makeshis or her order and the order is completed 606 without the customerhaving to provide his or her information. The same procedure is usedwhen a customer physically enters a business establishment, except thatthe registration is performed in person.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forzero-step authentication and completion of a transaction. When acustomer enters a business establishment 701, the customer's wirelessdevice and business payment facilitation device detect each other andautomatically establish connection 702. The business paymentfacilitation device retrieves the customer device identifier (ID) anduses the customer device ID to retrieve customer information fromcustomer information database located on a payment facilitation server703. The business payment facilitation device displays customer's photoand information to a restaurant employee, who confirms customer'sidentity by clicking on the photo of the customer 704. The customer thenplaces an order 705. When the order is placed, the business paymentfacilitation device sends payment details to payment facilitationserver, which either deducts amount from customer's pre-paid accountbalance or sends charge to payment processors 706. Optionally, anadditional security step may be inserted wherein the customer's wirelessdevice receives and displays a request for confirmation of the orderfrom the business CIP device and the customer clicks on the displayedrequest to confirm the order 707. Finally, the customer's order iscompleted 708.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forestablishment of an account and pre-authorization of payments. First, acustomer establishes an account using his or her customer mobile deviceand provides payment details (e.g., credit card, debit card, bankdetails for ACH, etc.) 801. The customer then sets an automatic accountpayment limit, a refill limit, and a refill amount 802. For example, thecustomer may set a payment limit for each transaction at $50, a refilllimit (i.e., minimum account balance below which the account will beautomatically refilled) of $10, and a refill amount of $100. Thecustomer may choose to have such payments sent automatically withouthandling his or her mobile device (zero-step authentication) 803 or maychoose to authorize each payment individually using his or her mobiledevice 804. A customer account management application funds the accountin the amount of the refill amount using payment details 805. Thus, inthis example, the customer has pre-authorized payments of up to $50 pertransaction, and pre-authorized the system to automatically refill hisaccount from the customer's financial institution (or credit card) inthe amount of $100 whenever the account balance falls below $10. Whenthe customer places an order, the customer account managementapplication checks account balance, deducts an amount equal to theamount for the order (after confirmation, if required), and refillsaccount balance using payment information if the account balance fallsbelow the refill limit 806.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forbill splitting among customers. Each customer mobile device runs anapplication that shows nearby customer devices also using the paymentsystem 901. Customers dining together form a group by selecting oneanother (or accepting a group formation created by one or more of them)902. Each customer's device displays a copy of the itemized bill on oneside of the screen, and a photo (or other representational image) ofeach other customer in the group on the other side of the screen 903.One or more of the customers in the group assigns payment by clickingand dragging items from the itemized bill to the photo (or image) of thecustomer responsible for paying for that item 904. When the group isfinished assigning payments, each customer approves his/her proposedpayment assignments, with unassigned items being distributed equallyamong the customers in the group 905. After all customers in the grouphave approved their payment assignments, the payment system processespayments from each customer's account according to the approved paymentassignments 906.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forfunds transfer among customers. Each customer mobile device runs anapplication that shows nearby customer devices also using the paymentsystem 1001. Customers wishing to exchange funds form a group byselecting one another (or accepting a group formation created by one ormore of them) 1002. Each customer's device displays a photo (or otherrepresentational image) of each other customer in the group 1003. One ormore of the customers in the group proposes a fund transfer by clickingand dragging from one customer to another, creating an arrow betweenthat pair of customers in the group indicating a direction of transfer,and enters an amount of funds to be transferred 1004. When the group isfinished proposing fund transfers, each customer approves his/herproposed fund transfer(s) 1005. After all customers in the group haveapproved their proposed transfers, the payment system processes paymentsfrom each customer's account according to the approved fund transfers1006.

FIG. 17 is a method diagram illustrating the function of a system forthird-party food and dining and retail purchase ordering control,according to an embodiment. Upon first attempting to use the system andthe application therein, a new administrator may connect to theapplication or web service, through either a web browser such as GOOGLECHROME™, MICROSOFT EDGE™, SAFARI™, or other web browsers, or it may beconnected to and accessed with a specific application 1710 such as amobile application on a phone, or a desktop application on a personalcomputer including laptops and some forms of tablet computers. Uponconnecting to the web application, the new admin must establishauthentication standards for their new account, such as either or acombination of login information, a pairing with a mobile device, orbiometrics 1720. Login information may comprise at least a username andpassword combination, while biometrics may be voice patterns discernedthrough a microphone recording, facial scanning through the submissionof a photo of the user's face, fingerprint scanning, retinal scanning,or other forms of biometrics if desired, or pairing of a specific mobiledevice which may be recognized upon attempting to pay with the device atan establishment. Login information may then be encrypted and stored ina datastore, for later use. An administrator may then set up sub-userssuch as dependents, set up bank account or other financial institutionconnections such as PAYPAL™, and personal account settings 1730. Thesesettings may include contact information, username and passwordchanging, notification settings, scheduling settings, sub-user settings,and more, which may be specified using a graphical user interface with,for instance, drop-down menus, text menus, and other elements common forGUI's to allow users to specify settings and preferences. The admin thenmay deposit money from their preferred financial institution or service,such as a bank account, debit or credit card, PAYPAL™, or otherfinancial institutions or services 1740. The admin may set upsub-services in the web application, for instance dietary restrictions,restrictions on groceries or establishments to purchase or purchasefrom, notifications and who to send notifications to, and may also seedthe suggestion engine 1750 with examples of their interests, classes ofobjects, foods, restaurants, and styles that interest them, and more. Asuggestion engine may be seeded with examples of restaurant, food, orgrocery store types or categories, examples of specific establishmentsor recipes, and then the application may be used to suggest similarestablishments or recipes to users when queried. Sub-user data may thenbe added by the administrator, and subsequently saved to the datastorefor identification, in a similar manner to the administrator's own logininformation 1760. This login information for a sub-user such as adependent, or a doctor's patient, may include a username and password,or biometric information for authentication, or a combination of both.Biometrics that may be utilized include but may not be limited to facialrecognition, retinal scanning, and vocal patterns 1760. As part of theaccount setup, administrators may also deposit funds from theirconnected financial institutions, to be used either by themselves or byany sub-users they have set up in their account. A potential sub-user isthen able to go to qualifying establishments and use any deposited fundsfrom the administrator to purchase permitted goods and services, oraccess suggested services including home recipes, with notifications ofactions being sent according to notification engine 1770. Purchasingsuch goods from businesses may be done with zero-step authentication atthe premises, such as passively matching their face upon entry into thebusiness or their vocal patterns in a similar manner once they speak toa host or cashier, or they may log in with a swipe of an ID card, or ausername and password, or some other method. Upon any attempts at usingthe deposited funds by a sub-user or even by the administrator as thecase may be, notifications may be sent to the admin or to any otherspecified parties, if applicable 1780. For instance, an emailnotification may be sent to a doctor that the administrator ispurchasing certain foods, to alert the doctor of any dietary changes forthe patient. Parents may also receive notifications this way about theirchildren purchasing anything in this way, even if the attempt atpurchasing is unsuccessful.

FIG. 18 is a message flow diagram illustrating the use of a system forthird-party food and dining and retail purchase ordering control,according to an embodiment. Devices exchanging messages and data includean admin device 1805, which may be a mobile device including a phone ortablet, or a personal computer such as a laptop or desktop, a webapplication 1540 operating on a server accessible over the Internet, aPOS system 1560 at a restaurant or store which may communicate over theinternet with the web application 1540, a third party device 1810 suchas a mobile device or personal computer which may be used by a thirdparty for the purpose of receiving notifications such as emails, SMSmessages, or logging into the web application 1540 to view notificationsmanually, and a datastore 1550 that may store data for a web application1540 such as user authentication and user settings. A datastore 1550 maybe a SQL database, a non-SQL based database, or other data storing andquerying solutions. An admin device 1805 must send a registration andauthentication 1815 message to the web application 1540. Anauthentication message may be encrypted and then decrypted usingmatching software and encryption techniques at the endpoint, and may besent over one of several protocols and methodologies, including usingsecure API calls in an application, using encrypted POST-GET methodsusing HTTP, sending data packets directly to an awaiting socket on thedestination server, or another method. Then the web application sendsthe data to a datastore 1550 for storage 1820. Such a datastore may be aSQL database such as MYSQL™ it may be a non-SQL database such asMONGODB™, it may be managed or unmanaged, or it may even be anon-database datastore, such as a data file or some other method ofstoring data. A point-of-sale system 1560 then may receive data on acustomer attempting to make a purchase, and sends the customer ID, logininformation, mobile device ID, or biometrics to the web application 1540for identification and authentication 1825. The customer ID, logininformation, or biometrics are then queried in the datastore 1550 by theweb application 1540, 1830. Such an attempt at identifying a user is aone-to-multiple check where a single identifying piece of data, or a fewidentifying pieces of data taken in concert, are compared to multiplerecords to locate the matching records of interest, which in this caseare likely to be a user and their matching permissions and restrictionsand funding. These requests may be sent over a variety of protocols overa variety of networks, including HTTP with POST-GET methods, API calls,communicating over a local or wide area network, communicating over theInternet, or other common networking solutions for communicating with adatastore for authenticating users. The datastore 1550 responds with thecustomer data, if any, to the web application 1540, 1835, in the case ofa successful or unsuccessful authentication. An unsuccessfulauthentication request in this context may refer to a lack of matchingdata in the datastore compared to the received identifying information,whether due to a lack of such a user in the datastore, a mismatchedpiece of information supplied by the user, corruption in the data streameither going to or from the datastore or web application, unavailabilityof the datastore or data in question, and other common sources of issueswith authenticating users. In this context, the web application'sresponse in the event of an unsuccessful authentication may or may notdiscriminate between various reasons with the authentication failed. Afailed authentication may also be the result of a lack of funds comparedto what the POS has requested, indicating that even though the user mayhave been identified, they cannot complete the purchase as requested.The web application 1540 responds to the POS system 1560, 1840, with thesuccessful or unsuccessful user authentication and funds, indicatingwhether or not the user may complete the transaction or not. Upontransaction success or failure 1840, the web application may notify athird party 1845 if applicable, and notify the administrator oradministrators, if applicable 1850. Notifications may be accomplishedthrough a variety of means and networks, including the Internet, phonenetworks such as a PSTN, SMS messaging, setting a notification flag forthe user to read when they next log into the web application, or othernotification methods common in the art for web applications tocommunicate with users.

FIG. 19 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a system forthird-party food, dining, and retail purchase ordering control, beingused for a parent to monitor and control what a child or other dependentmay order with deposited funds. A parent or caretaker such as a legalguardian may register an account with a web application, setting uptheir personal settings and verification criteria such as biometrics, ausername and password, pairing a mobile device to then use at the pointof sale for identification, or other identification criteria 1910. Aparent or other caretaker then may specify dependents and dependentaccounts, such as children, which may be verified with biometrics,zero-step authentication, traditional logging in with a username andpassword, or other methods 1920. Such user verification may be encryptedor unencrypted during various portions of the transmission to the webapplication from the time the user provides the data, and may be sentusing TCP protocol, HTTP protocol, UDP protocol, HTTPS protocol, orothers. The parent or other admin then may specify what the dependentsor other sub-users are allowed to purchase with funds in the account,such as limiting their diet or their budget 1930, before depositingfunds into the account 1940. The sub-user or sub-users may enterestablishments matched by the requirements set by parent, and orderapproved items 1950, and use the deposited funds for approved items atapproved establishments are deducted from app account, without thesub-user personally paying 1960, and allowing the parent or other adminto be notified if they set up notification options in the application1970 during the initial setup of their settings and preferences 1910.

FIG. 20 is a method diagram illustrating the use of a system forthird-party food, dining, and retail purchase ordering control, beingused for a patient to monitor and control what they eat withself-reporting or reporting to a doctor or other third-party,potentially with a doctor dictating the dietary restrictions on thepatient account. A patient may register an account with a webapplication, setting up their personal settings and verificationcriteria such as biometrics, a username and password, pairing a mobiledevice to then use at the point of sale for identification, or otheridentification criteria 2010. Such user verification may be encrypted orunencrypted during various portions of the transmission to the webapplication from the time the user provides the data, and may be sentusing TCP protocol, HTTP protocol, UDP protocol, HTTPS protocol, orothers. The patient may specify a third party to notify, such as adoctor, dietician or friend who may be dieting with them or helping themkeep track of their diet, to notify of their purchases with theapplication 2020. The patient may specify what they are allowed topurchase and where they are allowed to shop or eat, in keeping with adietary restriction 2030, in the same manner of restrictions as inprevious methods where an administrator prevents a sub-user fromaccessing funds for unauthorized purchases. It is possible for thepatient to be an administrator and self-regulate their account, or to bea sub-user with a doctor or dietician as the administrator who regulatesthe account, with the user paying for the deposits into the account, andthe administrator regulating what they can then use the deposited moneyfor after the patient deposits funds into the account 2040. The patientor dieter may then enter establishments matched by the requirements, andorder approved items 2050 if the funds in the account at least match theminimum required for the purchase, at which point the funds for theapproved items at approved establishments are deducted from app account2060. The doctor or diet-buddy or other third-party individual orindividuals may be notified as specified by the customer's settings inthe application 2070, either from the user's settings, or from theadministrator settings if the two are not identical, as in the case ofthe doctor being the administrator and the patient being a sub-user.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 11, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one aspect, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one aspect, a computing device 10 may be configuredor designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12, localmemory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In at least oneaspect, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of the differenttypes of functions and/or operations under the control of softwaremodules or components, which for example, may include an operatingsystem and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some aspects, processors 13 may include speciallydesigned hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a particular aspect, alocal memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/orread-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels ofcached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one aspect, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 11 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe aspects described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one aspect, a single processor 13 handles communications aswell as routing computations, while in other aspects a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In various aspects,different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in asystem according to the aspect that includes a client device (such as atablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems(such as a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect mayemploy one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example,remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data,program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, orother information relating to the functionality of the aspects describedherein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions maycontrol execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or moreapplications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11, 16 may also beconfigured to store data structures, configuration data, encryptiondata, historical system operations information, or any other specific orgeneric non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device aspects may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a standalone computingsystem. Referring now to FIG. 12, there is shown a block diagramdepicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more aspects orcomponents thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device 20includes processors 21 that may run software that carry out one or morefunctions or applications of aspects, such as for example a clientapplication 24. Processors 21 may carry out computing instructions undercontrol of an operating system 22 such as, for example, a version ofMICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE macOS™ or iOS™ operatingsystems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operatingsystem, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services 23 maybe operable in system 20, and may be useful for providing commonservices to client applications 24. Services 23 may for example beWINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, orany other type of common service architecture used with operating system21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable for receiving userinput, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (forexample, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or anycombination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any type suitable forproviding output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system20, and may include for example one or more screens for visual output,speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25 may berandom-access memory having any structure and architecture known in theart, for use by processors 21, for example to run software. Storagedevices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, orelectrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such asthose described above, referring to FIG. 11). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a distributed computingnetwork, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers.Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least a portion of asystem according to one aspect on a distributed computing network.According to the aspect, any number of clients 33 may be provided. Eachclient 33 may run software for implementing client-side portions of asystem; clients may comprise a system 20 such as that illustrated inFIG. 12. In addition, any number of servers 32 may be provided forhandling requests received from one or more clients 33. Clients 33 andservers 32 may communicate with one another via one or more electronicnetworks 31, which may be in various aspects any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the aspect does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 31 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some aspects, servers 32 may call external services 37when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additionaldata concerning a particular call. Communications with external services37 may take place, for example, via one or more networks 31. In variousaspects, external services 37 may comprise web-enabled services orfunctionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. Forexample, in one aspect where client applications 24 are implemented on asmartphone or other electronic device, client applications 24 may obtaininformation stored in a server system 32 in the cloud or on an externalservice 37 deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise's oruser's premises. In addition to local storage on servers 32, remotestorage 38 may be accessible through the network(s) 31.

In some aspects, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use of oneor more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locallyor remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one or moredatabases 34 in either local or remote storage 38 may be used orreferred to by one or more aspects. It should be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the art that databases in storage 34 may bearranged in a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety ofdata access and manipulation means. For example, in various aspects oneor more databases in storage 34 may comprise a relational databasesystem using a structured query language (SQL), while others maycomprise an alternative data storage technology such as those referredto in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLEBIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some aspects, variant databasearchitectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file datarepositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciatedby one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known orfuture database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless aspecific database technology or a specific arrangement of components isspecified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it shouldbe appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to aphysical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a singledatabase system, or a logical database within an overall databasemanagement system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a givenuse of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of thesesenses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning ofthe term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some aspects may make use of one or more security systems 36and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration management arecommon information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount ofeach are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with aspects without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to peripherals such as a keyboard49, pointing device 50, hard disk 52, real-time clock 51, a camera 57,and other peripheral devices. NIC 53 connects to network 54, which maybe the Internet or a local network, which local network may or may nothave connections to the Internet. The system may be connected to othercomputing devices through the network via a router 55, wireless localarea network 56, or any other network connection. Also shown as part ofsystem 40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various aspects, functionality for implementing systems or methods ofvarious aspects may be distributed among any number of client and/orserver components. For example, various software modules may beimplemented for performing various functions in connection with thesystem of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variouslyimplemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present inventionis defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for exercising third-party control over a first person's food and dining ordering, comprising: a payment facilitation server comprising a first plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory of, and operating on a processor of, a first computing device, wherein the plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause the first computing device to: receive user account data for a registered user from a user device via a network; receive a deposit request from the registered user; process a funds transfer from the registered user's financial account to the user account; associate a subordinate user with the registered user; receive a merchant authorization from the registered user; provide zero-step authorization wherein a subordinate user is automatically authorized to perform a transaction at a specific restaurant or retail location using funds associated with the registered user, the authorization comprising the steps of: comparing of the restaurant or retail location against any available merchant authorizations for the subordinate user to determine whether the subordinate user is authorized to perform the transaction at the restaurant or retail location; and comparing any merchant authorizations against the registered user corresponding to the funds used in the transaction to determine whether the merchant authorization was provided by the registered user; permit the transaction using the funds corresponding to the registered user to process only if the subordinate user is authorized via the zero-step authentication; and transmit a notification over the network to the registered user based on the attempted transaction; and a payment facilitation device comprising a second plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory of, and operating on a processor of, the payment facilitation device, wherein the second plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor of the payment facilitation device, cause the payment facilitation device to: detect a wireless mobile device registered to the subordinate user; establish a wireless connection with the wireless mobile device; obtain a device identifier for the wireless mobile device; send the device identifier to the payment facilitation server; receive customer information for the wireless mobile device from the payment facilitation server; display a photograph of the user; transmit transaction details to a mobile device of the registered user for approval; receive authentication of the transaction details from the registered user mobile device; and send the transaction details to the payment facilitation server for processing of the transaction.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the registered user and any specified subordinate users provide biometric information for the purpose of authentication with the system.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the zero-step authorization uses the biometric data for authentication.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant authorization is based on patient dietary restrictions.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the registered user is a guardian and the subordinate user is a dependent.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein the registered user is a medical professional and the subordinate user is a patient.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the notification is transmitted via any one or combination of email, SMS messaging, or messages seen upon logging into a web application.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data received from the registered user may be encrypted.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the deposit request comprises financial information necessary to deposit funds from the registered user's financial account.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein funds are associated with the registered user of the user account.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the displayed photograph of the user is associated with the wireless mobile device for confirmation of the identity of the subordinate user.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction details comprise a transaction amount.
 13. The system of claim 1, wherein the subordinate user may be authorized to use the funds.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant authorization comprises at least one merchant where the funds may be used to conduct a transaction.
 15. A method for exercising third-party control over a first person's food and dining ordering, comprising the steps of: receiving user account data for a registered user from a user device via a network; receiving a deposit request from the registered user; processing a funds transfer from the registered user's financial account to the user account; associating a subordinate user with the registered user; receiving a merchant authorization from the registered user; providing zero-step authorization wherein a subordinate user is automatically authorized to perform a transaction at a specific restaurant or retail location using funds associated with the registered user, the authorization comprising the steps of: comparing of the restaurant or retail location against any available merchant authorizations for the subordinate user to determine whether the subordinate user is authorized to perform the transaction at the restaurant or retail location; and comparing any merchant authorizations against the registered user corresponding to the funds used in the transaction to determine whether the merchant authorization was provided by the registered user; permitting the transaction using the funds corresponding to the registered user to process only if the subordinate user is authorized via the zero-step authentication; and transmitting a notification over the network to the registered user based on the attempted transaction; detecting a wireless mobile device registered to the subordinate user; establishing a wireless connection with the wireless mobile device; obtaining a device identifier for the wireless mobile device; sending the device identifier to the payment facilitation server; receiving customer information for the wireless mobile device from the payment facilitation server; displaying a photograph of the user; transmitting transaction details to a mobile device of the registered user for approval; receiving authentication of the transaction details from the registered user mobile device; and sending the transaction details to the payment facilitation server for processing of the transaction.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the registered user and any specified subordinate users provide biometric information for the purpose of authentication with the system.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the zero-step authorization uses the biometric data for authentication.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the merchant authorization is based on patient dietary restrictions.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the registered user is a guardian and the subordinate user is a dependent.
 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the registered user is a medical professional and the subordinate user is a patient. 